Benjamin est breton, mais aussi gallo.

Car en Bretagne à Fougères, là d’où vient Benjamin, la schizophrénie atteint tout le monde. Et tout ce qu’ils font… le Gwenn ha Du a ses vertus.

Un cursus classique fait d’un crescendo apparatchik de conservatoires, d’une collection de diplômes signés de la République française, et de concerts habillés tout en noir.

Un cursus prolétaire de l’ombre fait d’un chorus de garages tous de pin-up décorés, de sons couplés d’acouphènes, et de concerts en T-shirt troués.

Sinon pour faire plus simple, on peut lister ce que Benjamin sait le moins jouer en percussion : de tout. Ou alors sait le plus jouer : de rien.

Ou alors on va lister tous les continents où il n’a encore pas joué : Amérique du Sud et Afrique. C’est encore trop, vous en conviendrez.

Au final, ça explique bien son plus gros défaut : celui de tout aimer.

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Hailing from Brittany, Benjamin Soistier now lives and works in Paris.

He started his musical studies very early on, beginning with traditional French music and the tambour d’ordonnance Français. In 2007 he received the Premier Prix d’Excellence, the highest national distinction for his instrument.

He entered the Rennes Conservatoire at the age of 16 where he studied contemporary percussion in the class of Olivier Fiard. He was awarded the Diplôme d’Etudes Musicales à l’Unanimité du Jury in 2008, simultaneously completing his Bachelor of Musicology with distinction at the University of Rennes II. In the same year, Benjamin graduated with a Diplôme d’Etat in percussion and, three years later, got another Bachelor of Music in the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt in the class of Christophe Bredeloup. Later, he deepened his percussion teaching skills in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) with Jean Geoffroy and got finally a Certificat d'Aptitude and a Pedagogical Master of Percussion.

In 2017, Benjamin is selected to participate in the first edition of "Création en Cours" program, allowing him to create a digital/musical/choregraphic project with young pupils from an elementary school. Then, in 2018, CNSMDP chooses him to become the AIMS artist of the year (AIMS meaning Artist Intervening in School). The report of his work is available here.

Btw, he started playing drumkit at a young age in ska-jazz, funk, hip-hop and electro groups. He also ventures on stage for theater and musical theatre... performing, dancing and DJing in many various shows. Benjamin is best known for his performance skills on stage, notably with soundinitiative.

His projects to date have included performances in venues such as Paris Bercy, Trianon, Zéniths de Saint-Etienne et d’Angoulême, Parc Expo de Rennes, Théâtre du Chatelet, Opéra de Rennes et de Bordeaux, Grand Théâtre de Lorient, Théâtre National du Quartz in Brest, and Le Réservoir in Paris among others. Internationally, Benjamin has played in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Australia, New-Zealand, Singapore, Austria, Spain, Turkey, New-york, London, Madrid, Berlin, Prague, Brussels...